• Title  : Americae nova Tabula Auct: Guiljesino Blaeuw
• Date  : 1638
• Condition: (A) Very Good Condition
• Ref # : 50685
• Size  : 23in x 18 1/2in (585mm x 450mm)

Description:
This magnificent, classic hand coloured original antique map of America 2nd State - the quintessential image of 17th America - was published in the 1638 French edition of Joan Blaeus Atlas Novus. This map is in wonderful condition with a few minor repairs as mentioned below.    

General Condition:  
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable  
Paper color: - White  
Age of map color: - Original color  
Colors used: - Pink, green, yellow, blue, red  
General color appearance: - Authentic & beautiful  
Paper size: - 23in x 18 1/2in (585mm x 450mm)  
Plate size: - 22in x 16 1/2in (555mm x 415mm)  
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)    

Imperfections:  
Margins: - Professional repair to centerfold, no loss.  
Plate area: - Small professional repair to below Atlantic monster. Center-fold creases & re-joined at bottom, slight separation  
Verso: - Creasing and restoration to center-fold, top & left margin, no loss

Background:  
Originally issued by Joan Blaeus father, Willem, as early as 1617, this general map of the Americas was one of the longest lived plates in the atlas, having been used as an atlas map since 1630. 
Here is the general seventeenth century European view of the Western Hemisphere: the delineation of the coasts and the nomenclature of the Pacific as well as the Atlantic coasts are basically Spanish in origin and follow the maps of the Fleming Abraham Ortelius and his countryman  Cornelis Wytfliet. To these, Willem Blaeu inserted, on the east coast, the English names given by the Roanoke colonists in Virginia, and by Martin Frobisher, John Davis and Henry Hudson in the far north. In Florida and along the St Lawrence, Blaeu added the names given by the French settlers, almost the only memorials to their ill-fated venture in Florida during the latter part of the sixteenth century. 
When Blaeu first made his map in the early years of the seventeenth century, Europeans still had no real knowledge of the nature of the Mississippi system. From the expedition journals of Hernando de Soto (1539 - 1543) they had inferred an extensive range of mountains trending eastwards to the north of the Gulf of Mexico in la Florida apparently precluding a great river system. The Great Lakes were as yet unknown although by the time Blaeu issued this map in its atlas form in the Huron region together with the hearsay accounts from Coral Indians were becoming well known through his 1632 map of the region. Evidently, this appears to have been unknown to Blaeu at the time, but surprisingly, he never incorporated the information on later printings of the map. The same applies to Manhattan and Long Island as well, despite the fact that only a short distance from Amsterdam, the Leiden academic Johannes D Late had published the first edition of his monumental work on the Americas which provided source material for any number of maps of the Americas throughout the remainder of the century and beyond.   
In common with the other general continental maps in Blaeus atlas's, he has provided perspective plans or views of settlements in the Americas, including Havana, St Domingo, Cartagena, Mexico, Cusco, Potisi, I.la Moca in Chile, Rio Janeiro and Olianda in Pharnambucco, as well as the vignette illustrations of native figures taken from the accounts of John White (Virginia) or Hans Staden (Brazil) and others. (Ref: Burden; RGS; Koeman; Tooley)